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This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world by Sarah Wilson
ansemanco's review against another edition
1.0
As someone who works directly in the climate and conservation movement, this book felt very surface-level. There was a lot of self-righteousness disguised as "easy, simple living" and a lot of shaming language that felt immature and uninformed. The author seemed very concerned with fixing everything (and implied that the solutions were incredibly simple — just don't use a disposable coffee cup!) but very unwilling to hold sacred space and acknowledge the complexity of capitalism, climate change, cultural differences, etc.
The scope of the book was also much too broad and gave this surface skim of the world's ills (that we're all already aware of) without diving deeply and posing stories and descriptions that might cause us to pause and think constructively about any of it.
I just couldn't shake the undertones of arrogance, self-righteousness, and refusal to meet people where they're at, as well as the implication that no one else was thinking about these things or concerned about these issues, or changing their life as much as the author to address it. It just really belittled the decades of work professionals in this space have been doing and took on the tone of, "How has no one thought of this before?!" We have thought of it. We're working tirelessly on it. And saving your chicken bones from your meals out to make broth is most definitely not the solution we all somehow stupidly missed.
The scope of the book was also much too broad and gave this surface skim of the world's ills (that we're all already aware of) without diving deeply and posing stories and descriptions that might cause us to pause and think constructively about any of it.
I just couldn't shake the undertones of arrogance, self-righteousness, and refusal to meet people where they're at, as well as the implication that no one else was thinking about these things or concerned about these issues, or changing their life as much as the author to address it. It just really belittled the decades of work professionals in this space have been doing and took on the tone of, "How has no one thought of this before?!" We have thought of it. We're working tirelessly on it. And saving your chicken bones from your meals out to make broth is most definitely not the solution we all somehow stupidly missed.
80hannah08's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
marissamillennial's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
justinsim's review against another edition
1.0
She explains that she recalled this book several times from publishers to add content after world events.
It shows. This book has no flow and is just a jumble of random topics. She makes some good points but its not worth subjecting yourself to the rest of the spiritual ranting about hiking to sus out the points of value
It shows. This book has no flow and is just a jumble of random topics. She makes some good points but its not worth subjecting yourself to the rest of the spiritual ranting about hiking to sus out the points of value
casacacti's review against another edition
3.0
(3.5/5)
this took me a while to read. it asks a lot of questions of the reader, which is great for self-reflection and realisation, but not great as a before bed read (i stopped reading it before going to sleep).
its basically a big information dump intertwined with sarah wilsons own journey of self-reflection/realisation, and i really did learn so much. i just didnt love it as much as i loved 'the beast'.
saying that, ive tabbed the absolute shit out of this and i am looking forward to going through and writing information down.
this took me a while to read. it asks a lot of questions of the reader, which is great for self-reflection and realisation, but not great as a before bed read (i stopped reading it before going to sleep).
its basically a big information dump intertwined with sarah wilsons own journey of self-reflection/realisation, and i really did learn so much. i just didnt love it as much as i loved 'the beast'.
saying that, ive tabbed the absolute shit out of this and i am looking forward to going through and writing information down.
nushhetti's review against another edition
2.0
I so want to enjoy the way in which Sarah Wilson writes and shares her experience. However I have found with this book (and her first book too now that I think about it) that about half way through it starts to grate against me. I would love to read something she writes that isn't so deeply intertwined with her own anecdotes and life experience, just about the facts, there is peek of this at about the 95% mark of This One Wild and Precious Life, but for me it was too little too late. And this is the crux of it, she writes from her heart and it is therefore tied up in her own experience. I read this book on the heels of finishing Bill Gates impressive new book How to Avoid and Climate Emergency - which may account for the low score I gave Wilsons book. The explanations and facts Gates has the bandwidth of understanding and strategy required to start to slove the planets issues was significantly better expressed.
I initially picked up This One Wild and Precious Life because I wanted a more Austrlaian and personal journey and understanding of climate change and what an individual can do, but ultimately found that while her message is important this is the not the format I wanted this information presented to me. I found some of her ideas, such as hiking without water a little out there. As someone who plans and organises obviously I would find it difficult to understand Sarahs ability to just go with the flow (but also note she does benefit from people along the way who have planned and prepared and brought food etc which she happily partakes in).
I initially picked up This One Wild and Precious Life because I wanted a more Austrlaian and personal journey and understanding of climate change and what an individual can do, but ultimately found that while her message is important this is the not the format I wanted this information presented to me. I found some of her ideas, such as hiking without water a little out there. As someone who plans and organises obviously I would find it difficult to understand Sarahs ability to just go with the flow (but also note she does benefit from people along the way who have planned and prepared and brought food etc which she happily partakes in).
bianca89279's review against another edition
5.0
To be honest, before I reserved the audiobook I asked myself if I needed to read yet another book about climate change, consumerism, nature hikes etc, as I consider myself clued in. But then I'm also keen to learn more and, unfortunately, I need to be inspired and prompted now and then, when the wind in my sails seems to wane, which is why I ended up spending almost fourteen hours listening to Sarah narrating her own book.
Sarah Wilson is an Amazonian goddess, an objectively beautiful human specimen. She's much more than that, though. She's a thinker, a constant learner, an experimenter, a chance taker. A few years back, you may have come across her under the I Quit Sugar umbrella. She made a hobby project/blog into a very successful business. Instead of following the capitalist model of "constant growth" and getting richer and richer, she gave it all up, as selling it to multinationals would have required her to continue to be the face of the movement/business, something that she wasn't willing to do.
This book is a call to action, a call to reconnecting to nature, to stopping mindless consumerism, to stepping outside the zeitgeist. She does it through personal anecdotes and stories from many of her hikes through forests, deserts. It references authors, philosophers, environmentalists, artists and everyday people she met along the way. There is enough data to scare the pants off of you, but there's no info-dumping, not that it's anything wrong with that. Sarah Wilson opens us herself to judging by opening up about some very personal, intimate aspects and events of her life. Luckily, as she said "she doesn't have any more fucks to give about what others think" and she shouldn't. Isn't that one of the perks of getting a bit older and being comfortable with not being liked by everyone or wanting to be liked by everyone?
While listening to the audiobook I thought to myself what I shame I didn't have the print copy as I would have liked a list of the people and materials mentioned so that I could do more reading. I shouldn't have worried, there is an incredible list of resources on https://sarahwilson.com , it should keep me busy for some time.
Sarah Wilson is an Amazonian goddess, an objectively beautiful human specimen. She's much more than that, though. She's a thinker, a constant learner, an experimenter, a chance taker. A few years back, you may have come across her under the I Quit Sugar umbrella. She made a hobby project/blog into a very successful business. Instead of following the capitalist model of "constant growth" and getting richer and richer, she gave it all up, as selling it to multinationals would have required her to continue to be the face of the movement/business, something that she wasn't willing to do.
This book is a call to action, a call to reconnecting to nature, to stopping mindless consumerism, to stepping outside the zeitgeist. She does it through personal anecdotes and stories from many of her hikes through forests, deserts. It references authors, philosophers, environmentalists, artists and everyday people she met along the way. There is enough data to scare the pants off of you, but there's no info-dumping, not that it's anything wrong with that. Sarah Wilson opens us herself to judging by opening up about some very personal, intimate aspects and events of her life. Luckily, as she said "she doesn't have any more fucks to give about what others think" and she shouldn't. Isn't that one of the perks of getting a bit older and being comfortable with not being liked by everyone or wanting to be liked by everyone?
While listening to the audiobook I thought to myself what I shame I didn't have the print copy as I would have liked a list of the people and materials mentioned so that I could do more reading. I shouldn't have worried, there is an incredible list of resources on https://sarahwilson.com , it should keep me busy for some time.
prueem's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. There were times where I had to put it down because I needed time to process and think about what I was reading, but each time I came back more enthusiastically then before.
karenreads1000s's review against another edition
3.0
This book had so many subjects. If you look at it as a memoir, then it's about Sarah's life. There are lots of cliché phrases and words... beautiful questions, the edge, itchy, etc. that I could have done without. The climate change parts are a call to action and activism as science has gone as far as possible. The 3.5% of the population in nonviolent protest = change was an interesting statistic. Other topics included were aloneness, hiking (alone!), reproductive struggles, health struggles, woman in red, anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism, and other topics I've forgotten now.